spirit.fire.she

How does it go? A little older, a little wiser? Well yesterday was my birthday and I’m indeed a bit smarter today than I was a year ago. You live and learn. I could go on and on with the quick fix proverbial snaps about the blessings that come with age, but instead I’ll just break-down the five lessons I’ve learned about life, maturity and becoming a grown ass woman.

Shola Lynch captured the energy, attitude and theme of last Saturday’s Uptown Grrrl Soiree best in her speech when she said, “In order for us to succeed, Black women must support other Black women.” The room erupted in a roar of applause. Folks may have rolled through to Harlem Haberdashery for the gift bags or the open Svedka bar, but at that moment everyone in the tony boutique realized it was all about the power Read more...

I think my dad had been in and out of the hospital and rehabilitation center for maybe eight or nine months when he gave me the letter. He would improve and then he would have a setback, which would usually place him on a vent machine cutting off his ability to speak. It was Read more...

“I speak here as a woman of Color who is not bent upon destruction, but upon survival. No woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.” –Audre Lorde

“The way I feel about life? It’s a struggle. You have to stop getting mad and get smart.” – Mamie Lee Melton Nichols

Sunday night as the Oscar’s came to a close someone at The Onion Read more...

On Sunday I was transfixed like pretty much everyone else on the planet by Beyoncé’s half-time show. I was already amped because my team had run a clinic on the 49ers in the first half and was screwing up spreads across the land. Now I was ready for King Bey to rock that mutha.

Hot off the heels of a lip synch controversy so huge it damn near made Milli Vanilli’s debacle seem like a Read more...

While I’m working on other projects and can’t blog as much as I’d like, I’m happy that so many of my most favorite women are Capricorns, giving me the opportunity to give quick shout-outs of birthday love. Yesterday was Sade’s birthday and it also would’ve been Aaliyah’s 34th, God rest her soul.

Today is none other than our First Lady Michelle Obama’s 49th birthday! She set the celebration off with a social media bang this Read more...

Today is Helen Folasade Adu’s Birthday! She’s an incredible 54-years old today! Clearly, legends stay beautiful! As one of our most dynamic, sultry and sweetest soul singers, theHotness wishes her continued success and love. And thanks for putting us big foreheaded sisters squarely and magnificently on the map of beauty.

“Artistically, I have high aspirations. I don’t want to do anything less than the best I can do. I’m not trying to promote an image.” Read more...

The subtitle on the book cover reads: “A Fable about Following Your Dreams,” which, having read this book twice in the past 11 years and been emotionally transformed and spiritually revitalized both times, this subtitle does not do Coelho’s book justice. More than an Aesop tale, this fable is not kid’s stuff, it’s grown folk reading that will take you on a journey with Santiago, the shepherd, as he Read more...